The multi-award-winning filmmakers will turn their Oscar-winning black comedy into a TV series, with Billy Bob Thornton taking on the starring role

Joel and Ethan Coen will be reviving their much-acclaimed 1996 dark crime caper Fargo for a television audience, Reuters reported, with plans for a Fargo TV series being announced earlier this week. On Friday (2 August), a spokesperson for Fox's FX channel revealed that the filmmaking siblings are working on a TV-version of the Oscar-winning film, due to air on the channel in Spring 2014.

The spokesperson also added that the 10-episode mini-series already has a major acting talent lined-up to star in the film-adaption, with Billy Bob Thornton unveiled as one of the stars of the series. The 57-year-old will play one of several new characters due to be introduced in the new series, taking on the part of criminal Lorne Malvo, who was described as "a rootless, manipulative man who meets a small town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction" in the FX statement. No further cast and character details were announced, however it was revealed that the Coens will be serving as executive producers for the mini-series.

Billy Bob Thornton will star as a new character

The series is expected to follow a similar story to that of the double Oscar-winning 1996 movie, with certain new elements being added to the show to sustain it for 10 full episodes. The original film, which starred William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi and Frances McDormand - who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role - follows insurance salesman Jerry Lundegaard as he watches his poorly conceived crime fall apart due to his own ineptitude and the uselessness of his two henchmen, not to mention to persistence of the heavily-pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson.

The new series is expected to air in Spring 2014

Filming for the series is due to begin in Canada this fall, with the show expected to air on FX some time in the spring (2014). It marks the first time the Coens have ventured into television work, following a highly successful career on the big screen that has seen them release such noted cult hits as The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men and O Brother, Where Art Thou?